Stella was born in Kenya in 1986 and immigrated to Norway five years later, Stella realized her potential in music already at the age of six. Her interest in music was a result of racial abuse and discrimination, it was her way to put words to the struggles she faced on daily basis. Music made her feel good about herself and at the age of eight she could relate to artists and groups like Public Enemy, Queen Latifah, NWA and Salt & Pepper . In 1998 at the tender age og twelve, she worked with an African Youth group known as "The Rise" where they produced an album called "Maroon" which was released in Norway 2002. Among its tracks was the single 'All about the Benjamin'. In 2005 Stella and "The Rise" performed for Nelson Mandela while he was in Norway for an AIDS eradication campaign. Since 2002, Stella has been working with two production teams; Rumblin Music and JayArr Music.
Her Break into the African Hip Hop scene came in 2005 when she worked with a Senegalese Hip Hop group called Wagable on their debut album S´enegal´ produced by Rumblin Music. She performed on two of their songs 'Babylon' and 'Do it' which topped the charts in Senegal and Gambia for several weeks. The album scooped the best album of the year in Senegal for 2005.
In Kenya Stella has worked with top Hip Hop artists such as Mishelle, Abas Kubaff, Kantai and reggae artist Ousman. In 2006 she got five nominations in the Chaguo La teeniz Awards in Kenya, at that point she had been on the Kenyan music scene for only three months. She did not win on that occasion but it propelled her to win in the KISIMA Awards three months later for the best new and promising artist. In December 2006 Stella performed at the MTV Alert event in Nairobi, Kenya.
She has performed as a warm up artist for a variety of international artists like Angelique Kidjo, Common, Paul Wall, Talib Kweli, Dead Prez and Public Enemy during their shows in Norway.
Her songs, "Crazy", "Feeling Love" and " The Swing", which she wrote with The DNC, was picked by the Position Music and Choice Tracks (based in L.A) as soundtracks on world famous TV and movies such as: Save the last dance 2, American pie 5, Redline and the series; CSI New York, CSI Las Vegas, Ghost whisperer, Big shot, Scrubs and Army Wives.
Source: http://artists.letssingit.com/stella-mwangi-8jcjm/biography
